John Ivison: Former intern tells tale of sexual harassment on Parliament Hill

Jasmine Ali was an eager 22-year-old Arab-Canadian intern when she stepped from Carleton University’s campus into a job in the office of an MP on Parliament Hill.

Her subsequent experience with sexual harassment ruined a decade of her life, and led to two suicide attempts.

Jasmine Ali is a pen name and Ms. Ali remains uncomfortable about going public with her identity for fear of “repercussions” — even though it’s been eight years since she suffered the abuse.

But, in the wake of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal, she says she was spurred to raise what she says is a culture of sexual harassment on Parliament Hill.

Having met with Ms. Ali, and having been around the Hill for long enough to know the imbalance of power that exists between mainly male MPs and senior staffers, and mainly female interns, I found her story entirely plausible.

‘I felt like a zebra surrounded by hungry lions’

“I was incapacitated completely for a couple of years … I recovered slowly but my twenties were a lost decade of life thrown into the garbage bin,” she said in a blog posting.

Ms. Ali was 22 when she arrived on the Hill, fresh from a political science degree. She was assigned to the office of a Liberal MP, who she says she would prefer not to name publicly.

Her tormentor was her supervisor in the MP’s office. In her second day on the Hill, he told her: “Parliament is not a place for women. Parliament is a men’s locker room where it is about whose THING is bigger,” pointing to his erect penis.

He then asked her to go on a date.

In her second week, he told her: “Women can’t sue for sexual harassment on the Hill. It is the one place exempt from sexual harassment laws, as no woman has ever won an action.” She said she didn’t know if he was correct legally (he was not) but she had learned enough to know a lawsuit was career suicide.

The harassment was not limited to verbal abuse. The staffer regularly tried to touch her and “squeeze in.”

When she continued to reject his advances, he tried to humiliate and undermine her by making her wash his dishes. She said he passed off her work as his own, and sabotaged her efforts to impress her boss. He told her the workplace discrimination would stop if she agreed to have dinner with him.

Ms. Ali complained to her MP and was told the matter would be dealt with. In the event, the only thing that happened was she was fired — an event that led to a post-traumatic stress diagnosis.

“A doctor told me PTSD is a result of trauma plus helplessness … I felt like a zebra on the savanna surrounded by hungry lions,” she said.

It’s a tragic story and all too believable in light of the Ghomeshi case. There is something of a happy ending, in that Ms. Ali has rebuilt her life and launched her own tech company, after going back to college to gain qualifications in a field other than politics.

‘I recovered slowly but my twenties were a lost decade of life thrown into the garbage bin’

But she said her experience is far from unique. She attended a Carleton University lecture on gender and politics. During the question-and-answer session, she raised her hand and said she knew a girl who had been the subject of sexual harassment on the Hill. “I saw five other hands go up with people saying ‘this happened to me too,’ or to someone they knew.”

How common is sexual harassment on the Hill? It’s hard to say. The only documented case in recent times involved allegations against Senator Colin Kenny, which were dismissed by an independent investigation. That case is unlikely to encourage more women to break cover — the burden of proof was on the complainant to prove her claims. (The Ontario Human Rights code states the evidentiary bar in civil sexual harassment cases is “the balance of probabilities,” rather than the “beyond reasonable doubt” bar that governs criminal trials. But even this threshold is tricky in the “he said/she said” twilight world of sexual harassment.)

I contacted all three main parties about their policies on abuse in the workplace, and whether there have been cases recently.

None wanted to talk specifics, reinforcing the idea that they believe this is private business better off handled inside the political family.

The Liberals said the House of Commons should have a formal process to deal with these kind of allegations to create a “welcoming and positive work environment.” Yet when Ms. Ali went to the Liberal Party human resources department back in 2006, she was told nothing could be done about her case. It’s easy to talk a good game.

What can be said with confidence is that Parliament is not a typical workplace.

It offers the incendiary mix of power and opportunity — lonely, competitive men in positions of authority, thousands of kilometres from their families, in charge of impressionable, ambitious, attractive young women. Throw in the copious amounts of booze available on the Hill and bad behaviour is all but guaranteed. One female colleague said she would always leave Hill events before certain MPs drank too much, such was the testosterone-charged atmosphere.

According to Ms. Ali, a bigger problem than predatory MPs are political staffers thrust into positions of responsibility without any experience or preparation. “Many of them don’t have the social skills to talk to women,” she said.

Anyone who has been around the Hill for any length of time knows abuse takes place. But the culture that fosters it is unlikely to change unless brave young women can come forward and face their abusers without fear of “repercussions.”

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.